Last Sunday I went with Sister Bush to the hospital to visit
one of the sisters I visit teach. We haven't seen her at church for a
couple of weeks because her mother is in the hospital. This was my first
visit to the hospital and it was quite the experience. The hospital doesn't
provide food or bedding for the patients and so it is up to the family to take
care of them. The ward we went in reminded me of the hospital unit you see on
MASH. There were 10 beds in one room, with kids running
everywhere. The family member that stayed at night with the patient
brought in their floor mat and put it on the floor under the patient's bed to
sleep on. Other members of the family were sitting on the sidewalk
outside surrounding the ward eating. Of course flies are everywhere,
there is no air condition so the windows are all open, and it smells like
rotting food. Some patients are on beds on the outside corridors, with
family, food, and flies everywhere. The sister's mother is not a member but she
wanted a blessing. We came home and Rich and the Elder's Quorum president, Tebwe,
along with his fiance and I went back to the hospital so they could give her a
blessing. As they were giving her a blessing another girl came up to us and
asked if they could give her friend's baby a blessing. We walked over to
the next ward which was filled with cribs and sick children and babies, mothers
trying to comfort children, and other children everywhere. They gave the
baby girl a blessing who cried the entire time. As they were blessing her, I
could feel something on my back. I turned around so see what I thought
was a baby boy, but old enough to be standing in the crib. He only had
one eye and was tugging on my blouse. I immediately became emotional and
thought, where is the Savior that could heal the blind, and make the lame to walk.
The Priesthood is there but only two were blessed. As we walked out of
the hospital, all of us were touched. What more can we do?
We went back to the hospital to visit and read to the kids. Sundays can get quite lonely when we're not surrounded by our children and grandchildren. We did visit with the Dorm Mother and her mother again. The mother just had her surgery a couple of days ago. Hopefully, she can go home soon. We did visit the pediatrics ward but only three children were there. One was a small baby with heart problems; another fell out of a tree and broke his arm; the other was a 9 year old who was quite tall for his age and VERY skinny. Rich was able to communicate with his mother enough to understand he cannot keep anything down. The doctors had him on a saline drip is all. He is from Butaritari which is an island I think to the north of Tarawa and belongs to Kiribati. This island is where all the great banana's come from. Anyway, the doctors want to send him, along with his mother, to Fiji for better care. I was able to read a couple of stories to the sister of the young boy who fell from the tree. Thankfully, the mother could understand English enough to translate. We are grateful to see that there are not so many patients this week. There were only 3 patients in the adult ward as well. Hopefully they are better and were able to return home.
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| Hospital Entrance |
